U.S. Homebuilder Confidence Holds Steady In November

(RTTNews) - Homebuilder confidence in the U.S. held steady in the month of November, according to a report released by the National Association of Home Builders on Monday.

The report said the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index came in at 54 in November, unchanged from the downwardly revised reading for October.

Economists had expected the index to come in unchanged compared to the 55 originally reported for the previous month.

The NAHB noted that the reading above 50 indicates that more builders viewed market conditions as good than poor for the sixth consecutive month.

NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said, "The fact that builder confidence remains above 50 is an encouraging sign, considering the unresolved debt and federal budget issues cause builders and consumers to remain on the sideline."

The report showed that the component index gauging current sales conditions held steady at a reading of 58 in November.

Meanwhile, the component indexes measuring expectations for future sales and traffic of prospective buyers both fell by one point to 60 and 42, respectively.

The NAHB noted that the three-month moving averages of the regional housing market indexes turned in a mixed performance.

The indexes for the South and West held unchanged at 56 and 60, respectively, while the index for the Northeast edged up by one point to 39 and the index for the Midwest fell three points to 60.

Wednesday morning, the National Association of Realtors is scheduled to release a separate report on existing home sales in the month of October.

Economists expect existing home sales to dip to an annual rate of 5.13 million in October from 5.29 million in September.